Expressway Cluster Upgrade from 8.11.2 to 12.5.3

[ln33147]

Dears,

We have 6 Expressway servers installed between HO & DR as follows:

HO
Expressway C Primary
Expressway C Failover
Expressway E Primary
Expressway E Failover

DR
Expressway C
Expressway E

As far as I understood:

- HO Expressway C Primary & HO Expressway C Failover are considered as 1 cluster.
- HO Expressway E Primary & HO Expressway  Failover are considered as 1 cluster.
- DR Expressway C is considered as 1 server.
- DR Expressway E is considered as 1 server.

I know that I need to upgrade the primary node in a cluster first followed by the second node. But could you please advise if I shall start with the C or E servers?

And has anyone gone through a similar upgrade and has recommendations?

Thank you,

Lara

[Vaijanath Sonvane]

Hi,

In upgrade guide it is not mentioned whether to perform Expressway-C or Expressway E upgrade first. Cisco TAC recommended that if there is Traversal Zone configured on Expressway Servers then perform upgrade on Expressway-E first as it acts as a Traversal Server and then Expressway-C as it acts as a Traversal Client. It recommend that Expressway-C (traversal client) and Expressway-E (traversal server) systems that are connected over a traversal zone both run the same software version. However, Cisco does support a traversal zone link from one Expressway system to another that is running the previous feature release of Expressway (for example, from an X8.11 system to an X8.10 system). This means that you do not have to simultaneously upgrade your Expressway-C and Expressway-E systems. 

Also, go to Expressway Administration >> System >> Clustering and verify the peers configured in cluster.